Neovasc Inc. has announced that a first patent covering the company’s innovative Tiara™ transcatheter mitral valve replacement technology has been issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office. The new patent protects key aspects of the Tiara mitral valve prosthesis.

Background

We’ve covered Neovasc and its Tiara device before, notably in September 2012 when the company reported acute preclinical study success. Neovasc has enjoyed quite a bit of air time recently with a strong showing at TCT2013 and two subsequent pieces of positive study news regarding its Tiara valve(preclinical study) and its Neovasc Reducer™(primary endpoint attained) for patients suffering from refractory angina.

Tiara is a self-expanding bioprosthesis specifically designed to treat mitral valve regurgitation (MR), a serious and poorly served condition that requires development of highly specialized devices to address the complex mitral anatomy. Severe mitral regurgitation can lead to heart failure and death. Conventional surgical treatments are only appropriate for a small percentage of the millions of patients with MR, including an estimated four million in the US alone.

The newly reported patent grant (US Patent No. 8,579,964, “Transcatheter Mitral Valve Prosthesis,”) is the first to issue from a portfolio of US and international patent applications Neovasc has filed aimed at establishing an extensive intellectual property estate covering the entire Tiara program, including the prosthesis, delivery system, associated accessories and methods of use.

Company comments

“The issuance of this first patent in the Tiara portfolio represents a significant milestone for the company,” said Alexei Marko, CEO of Neovasc. “With this key intellectual property protection now assured and the successful completion of the majority of our preclinical studies, Neovasc is advancing the Tiara development program according to plan. We are working with the highly respected medical teams at Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital and the Antwerp Cardiovascular Center, ZNA Middelheim to plan the first-in-human Tiara trials, which we expect to get underway in 2014.”